Saturday, 31 July 2010

Gold is the more valuable school with fewer effects, just because I think access to healing magic is one of the most sought-after things out there and players would run a cleric class with no armor, no turning, and no spells other than healing, strictly to min-max the party, even if it would get boring after a while (cleric henchmen would be ideal). I have, however, buffed up a number of things I always have considered weak, like bless.

Yep, turning is a spell (series of spells, really) without a wonky table. Raggi's Flame Princess rules also handle things this way, but of course worldmakers are free to include any spell as an inherent class ability. Bless and Consecrate don't stack with themselves.

Also, some of my cleric class options include spells from other schools, so they can do divinations, Bible-style miracles, and the like. These three schools' spells are very tightly focused on what they do.

I like the idea of Black magicians and priests being scary in the same way a Rust Monster is scary, hence the spell Defilement.

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Sacred Magic is the name collectively given to three Schools of Magic - Black, White and Golden - whose effects and understanding are associated with the Divine order.

The purpose of White magic is to protect life and well-being, through the metaphor of light.

The purpose of Black magic is to bring an end to life and well-being, through the metaphor of darkness.

The purpose of Golden magic is to restore life and well-being that has been destroyed, through the metaphor of the Golden Body, flesh and blood.

The relationship among these magics, alignment, religion and morality is complicated at best, and depends heavily on the world travelled to. For now, accept a promise to sketch out some ideas later that fit the Schools into varying worldviews, from Christian to Pagan to Taoist.

I use general categories here of "Holy/Unholy" things and creatures, which you may define at will. But one of the key decisions that can't be ignored when describing magic effects in the theology of a campaign is whether the two are:

symmetrical, so that Holy and Unholy each have special virtue against each other,

or asymmetrical, so that Holy things are effective against Unholy things but Unholy things don't especially affect Holy things any more than they affect other things, and maybe even less.

I'll assume here a symmetrical world, but the way to change it is easily shown; I'll put any symmetrical effects of Unholy vs. Holy in [square brackets].

The essence of these Schools can be summed up in these variations on a popular first level spell. Yes, Cause is ranged and not touch (but you get a save); it should be one of the baddest damage spells out there, not something that requires you hit and does as much damage as that mace you are holding in your hand that by the way also doesn't require a saving throw.

Protection from Light Wounds

White, Level 1
Duration: 30 minute
Range: 0 (Touch)

By touching a being, the caster protects him or her from any form of damage to hit points other than permanent drain. The protection will negate the first 1d6+1 hit points of damage taken by the being from any source within the duration, rolled openly. The spell also protects, while it lasts, from an additional and equal amount of hit point damage from black magic attacks or from physical and spiritual attacks from Unholy creatures. Tally this amount separately, subtracting unholy damage from it first, before the more general pool is tapped.

Cause Light Wounds

Black, Level 1
Duration: None
Range: 30'

By pointing at a living being, the caster inflicts a horrible wound in the flesh if the target fails to save (CON bonus). The wound does 1d6+1 hit points of damage. [Double this amount if the being is Holy.]

Cure Light Wounds

Gold, Level 1
Duration: None
Range: 0 (Touch)

By touching a fleshly living being, the caster heals him or her of 1d6+1 damage.

As I take a breather in outlining my color magic scheme, it's interesting to note that Lord Kilgore has done a pretty neat conversion of the spellcasting classes and traditional D&D spell lists to the five colors of Magic:The Gathering.

It's worth noting that each color he comes up with is a viable class unto itself with a variety of different effects. I've been taking more liberties with the spells and my colors function more like the "Enchantment, Abjuration, Illusion" categories from AD&D on.

In the meanwhile, click to enlarge the image at left and consider how the five colors in Magic could also be an alignment system ....

Addressing how my color spectrum can be combined back into classes will be my last point, after I outline the four remaining schools which have been more associated with traditionally clerical or druidic magic. I've decided that those schools don't need what was looking to be a five-post preface on alignment as a proper introduction. The issues of Protection from Evil and so forth can be postponed if I just substitute "Unholy" for "Evil" and let the definition of that be open to the GM. It seems like too much of an imposition on the referee's handling of alignment to do otherwise, especially when the options have multiplied in the proliferation of retro campaign settings and rulesets.

I may be posting a little less often in the coming month. I have a lot of travel coming up, including New York City and GenCon. I hope to be able to share some of the gaming experiences with you all ...

Monday, 26 July 2010

Now let me make clear that I have no desire to use an analytic tool used by highly intelligent people in a somewhat inappropriate or dare I say "obsessive" way, characteristic of those who lack social eptitude, to enable me to categorize real people into social stereotypes.

Saturday, 24 July 2010

The Great Mystery of the Silver School: Gate
In the apex spell of Silver magic, the dual functions of summoning and travel become one; a two-way rift in the universe permits the caster to step through to another plane of existence, or to call any denizen of that plane to appear. Unlike the lower level spell of planar travel, many more planes than the ones enumerated in theology can be visited. The perils of both summoning and travel, as always with Silver magic, should be quite clear. The claim that the Silver Gate can also be used for time travel is less clear, but the words of the sage Dzemaclua may help illuminate this arcanum: "For know that there are planes in which the poison dagger missed King Atroban, or the comet collided with the mountains instead of the great city of Naun. And so there also must be planes in which everything happened as in our world, but a hundred years later."

The Great Mystery of the Gray School:Wish
This is it; this is The Spell. The culmination of all magic, but also its essence: your will changes the world.Unlike the world-altering powers given by stubborn genies or magical artifacts, the Wish spell is said by nearly all authorities to be foolproof. You are not convincing something to do your will in a language easily twisted, rather, it is the language of your mind that expresses your will, and so mote it be. Curious, then, that the tales of great archmages bandying about Wishes simply don't exist. On reaching the Great Gray Mystery, it seems one either Transcends or simply vanishes. The conjectures on this point could fill a book, but the most common are that: a part of the magic of the Wish obscures its own existence, shaping reality so completely that its effects seem wholly natural; the user of the Wish splits off into a childish universe of instant fulfillment, in which all others are mere puppets, while life in reality goes on; the Wish meets all your desires at once, spoken and unspoken, conscious and unconscious, and anyone with even a hint of subconscious death instinct ceases to exist. Indeed, perhaps the way to Transcend from the Wish is simply not to use it.

And that's a wrap. Oh wait ... "clerical" and "druid" magic? OK, OK, fine, but after a short break from the spell lists.

The next three Great Mysteries leave the realm of the mind and enter the realm of reality, issuing the ultimate commands to matter and energy.

The Great Mystery of the Yellow School: Polymorph Any Object

With the words of the Universal Transmutation, anything becomes anything else. Well, not really; the rule to be followed, so they say, is that one aspect of the object, be it form, soul, function or substance, remain the same. Thus, the miracle attributed to Chimedd in the siege of Cuasa, who turned a row of children's slingshots into a battery of catapults, preserving their function; or to Xeba in the days of the Tlanite Dynasts, who turned her enemies into perfect gold statues of themselves. The opportunities for greed loom limitless, but the cautionary tales are severe. Chimedd ended up embracing change with all his being, a congeries of flesh and organs, scrabbling on the floor. Once her devalued gold no longer bought loyalty, Xeba was fed a paralytic drug by the new enemies she had made by killing the old enemies, and dipped, alive, in molten platinum. One intriguing clue to the nature of the world, from the lore of this Mystery: "Though ye turn a statue to a man, ye have not created life, merely awakened it; though ye turn a man to a statue, ye have not yet extinguished him, merely put him to sleep."

The Great Mystery of the Red School: Disintegrate
What better destruction can one want, than the complete and unconditional evanescence of matter? Hence the pinnacle of Red magic is found in this straightforward spell, whose workings are a beacon of clarity in the fog of misinformation surrounding the Mysteries. The doom of the Red Mystery is likewise spelled out without embellishment in various legendaria. Use upon use, the area of effect increases uncontrollably, until its radius exceeds the range of the spell and the caster joins his victims in oblivion. The existence of the Great Pit of Zethyus is attributed to the repeated use of this Mystery to ward off a horde of foes, by an archmage unknown and unburied.

The Great Mystery of the Blue School: Create Life
With this most sacred rite, the final Words of Creation are whispered into the seeker's ear, granting the power of the Gods. It is taken for granted, that all the bizarre hybrids, sickly aberrations, cruel abominations, and freakish whimsies that crawl beneath the stone ceilings and moonless skies of the world owe their existence or their lineage to this Mystery. One and all, those who fail to transcend at this most dangerous of leaps along the path are destroyed by their creation. The means of this doom can be original; they speak of the half-elven adepta Euryth, who cobbled together a tiny ailment to eradicate the Orcs and fell its first victim; or of Agzu Ad Bastor, who pined to death after being spurned by the ideal female companion he had created.

Thursday, 22 July 2010

The Great Mysteries, it is rumored, are a path of eight spells: one for each of the Schools of Magic.

Each great Mystery is the culmination of its School; the ultimate and final insight, and the very School's transformation into something different. If the path is walked, and the eight Mysteries learned, the doors of the Cosmos open wide for the archmage; Transcendence beckons.

Scores of sorcerers, finding the limitation of the sixth level of spells too much for them, have taken up the quest and set foot on the path. Many have fallen by the wayside, laid low by the temptation of misusing these great powers. To stay one's hand and reach Transcendence is the safest and at the same time the most difficult way. Only three, it is said, have done it since the world began.

Indeed, some say that the Great Mysteries of the Black, White, Gold and Brown schools must also be encompassed to reach the legendary final state of Transcendence. If so, then Transcendence is remote indeed; in this broken world where the Mysteries are scattered among the wizards of Man and the priests of the Gods.

The Great Mystery of Purple Magic: Master of Reality
This may be the first Great Mystery , as Purple is the most basic school of high magic. Or maybe the last, as the very essence of all magic is to impose the form of will on the world. Altering all in sight, the master of the Purple school crosses the boundary between seeming and being, and creates a section of the world anew for all who believe. A village of hovels becomes a knightly palace; wet swamp becomes baking desert. Emlo the Chrysanthine created a fool's paradise; Gramnion created a hell for his enemies. Both of them failed to transcend. One believed too much in his creation and became one with it, the other dwindled to a phantom shape, believing too little in himself. This is all that is known of this mystery.

The Great Mystery of Orange Magic:Oracle
Some speak of this mystery as taking the form of a book ... a brass head ... a talking beast ... a magic mirror. Curiously, the spell is also written of as being "found" or "owned" and not "cast." Whatever it may be, the Oracle answers all questions put to it perfectly. Surely there must be limit to the number of questions per day, though the histories do not speak of any such limits. The stories of those who failed at this level imply that the Oracle eats at the mind with each question; Bellagrance went insane with the knowledge she could not stop herself from uncovering, while Fra Ugo ended up with his mind a blank, having to ask the Oracle even what his own name was at the end.

The Great Mystery of Green Magic: Mind Swap
It is fitting that the ultimate expression of domination of one mind over another should involve the actual exchange of mind for mind. The duration of this spell, though unknown, is also irrelevant when used for its most audacious and atrocious purpose: to transfer the mind of a senescent wizard into the fresh body of a youth, who then ensures the death of the former body, sealing the bargain and cheating the Reaper. Sometimes, a thin moralism is imposed over the vile act. Thus, the lich Karces, tired of his old bones, transferred himself into a black gem of great price perched atop a treasure hoard, justifying his possession of the eventual victim's body as a punishment for greed. One could go on living for millennia in this way, spending a lifetime in each body, a lifetime in each place. Many have, and still do, quietly. But such an attachment is a sure way to lose the Path ... remaining only the master of the human mind, never going beyond, feeling old even at thirty, losing a small piece of the soul with each addictive transfer.

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Maybe you can tell from my last post I was kind of getting tired of the idea that all the high-level spells should be codified and splatted out there for all players to see and figure out from day one. It's the same kind of instinct that makes me loathe the "Deities & Demigods" approach to divine power. If everything can be reduced to a known stat block, then everything can be munchkinized, starring now at a delayed-adolescent power trip near you. Power and knowledge should not translate to omnipotence or omniscience, at any level of viable play.

In other words - let's see more of the approach taken by the 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide, when it presented the abilities of its legendary artifacts as blanks, waiting to be filled in idiosyncratically for each campaign.

Anyway, the comments gave me some neat ideas for how to suggest designing magical schools and societies. And this makes me realize that the most helpful thing I can do is provide tools for people to customize, rather than dictate how everything works exactly, because magic systems are so inevitably tied up with a GM's own ideas about the setting.

And now, the last spells you learned about in any kind of detail from your classes at wizard school.

As you gain character levels past, um, whatever level your version of the rules has you learn your first 6th level spell at, you still gain spell slots at level 7, 8 and so on. But those are just so you can memorize powered-up versions of level 6 and below spells, using the Gray School booster effects. New spells at those rarefied levels are not so easy to gain ...

While you have been dodging poisoned darts ... haggling with henchmen ... recovering from grievous wounds ... hauling back copper pieces in 50 pound sacks or on your own personal floating disk ... blasting monsters with the same old reliable spells, day in day out ... hoping to dig up some old scrap or spellbook by slaying in cold blood another dungeon-grubbing junior wizard ...

THEY - your classmates who stuck around - have been writing letters, making friends in high places, getting library doors opened for them - sitting down at table every day with a dozen or so high intelligence grinds, the best in their class - eating, drinking and sleeping magic 18 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What do you think they have been learning?

Do you think it possible that the sum total of Magic is not contained, even as a tangible fraction, within the Players' Handbook? Do you really think that's all there is, what they allow you dabblers to learn when you come back to the academy to "level up" - as you so amusingly call it?

Do you think you may have to consult someone else, through long, bitter, trial and error experience, for the real Rules?

And - even when you become a Wizard - are you still going to be a roving, rootless, Schmendrick to them?

Monday, 19 July 2010

The modifier effects really let you cut down on those high-level spell lists. Yes, there's a "Mass X" modifier coming up next level. The rest is a combination of classics and, "What should this color do at this level?" ideas.

Incidentally, the Hold spells are green, so they represent an emotional extreme. The emotion you feel under a Hold spell is the rigid, crippling anxiety of the frozen rabbit in the cobra's sight.

1

Cone of Cold

Red

30’

None

(Dex)

60’ long, 30’ wide cone does 12d6 cold damage, save for half

2

Demi-Real Monster

Purple

90’

10 rds

(Int)

Image of monster with HD up to caster’s level does half damage if no save

About Me

Researcher in social science and appreciator of hexy wargames, role playing games, interactive fiction, board games, and CCGs. I've learned a lot doing design and rules editing work on the side for the Legend of the Five Rings CCG. But this blog is mostly about other things.